


even when we're smiling out of fear

by snicklefritz



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: F/M, M/M, brief Mean Girls reference, five times fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-21
Updated: 2014-01-21
Packaged: 2018-01-09 14:04:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1146857
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snicklefritz/pseuds/snicklefritz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five times Chuck Hansen woke up in the Becket's apartment.</p>
            </blockquote>





	even when we're smiling out of fear

**Author's Note:**

> I started this back in September, wow. Unbeta'd, so let me know about any mistakes I didn't catch. Title from Lorde's "Tennis Court" because I like that line and I couldn't think of anything else.

The first time Chuck wakes up in the Becket’s apartment, it’s still dark outside, and Yancy has stolen all the blankets. Chuck slips out of the loose arm Yancy has thrown over his waist, stands and carefully cracks his joints in the stillness of the room. He gets dressed in the dark with the precision of a soldier, and with one final glance at Yancy’s sleeping form, steals out of the apartment like a thief. He doesn’t feel anything, not shame, not pride, idly wondering how late Yancy will sleep in on his day off. Not that it matters to him, or anything. 

The second time, Chuck oversleeps, and doesn’t bother to be quiet as he tears the room apart looking for his socks. This is when he learns that Yancy is entirely useless immediately after waking up, and curses the older man soundly when he nearly falls out of bed in his misguided attempts to help Chuck’s search. 

“Just stay put, you useless bludger, I’ll find it myself-”

Yancy must be more awake than he lets on, because suddenly his hand shoots out to cover Chuck’s mouth, and that’s when he hears it- footsteps on the floor, heavy, full of purpose, stopping outside Yancy’s door.

“Yance, you up?” Raleigh calls out in surprise. 

Chuck watches Yancy shoot a look over at the alarm clock, which reads 8:17 a.m., and the groan Yancy produces is entirely real.

“No,” he says flatly. “Just a… a weird dream.”

Chuck rolls his eyes at the lie, and impulsively sticks his tongue out to lick Yancy’s palm. Yancy uses his free hand to pull Chuck into a loose headlock. 

“Was it that one about _Regina_?” Raleigh teases, and Chuck can only imagine the grin that goes along with the words. Yancy makes some sort of noncommittal grunt, which gets a chuckle from behind the door.

“I’m going to meet Mako at the farmer’s market, so feel free to sleep in, old man,” Raleigh says, and Chuck finally hears footsteps as the other man walks away from the door, and finally, the sound of a door shutting and locking. Yancy lets Chuck go and immediately dives back under the bedcovers, burrowing down until only the top of his head can be seen under the sheets. 

Chuck met Raleigh a grand total of once, and it nearly ended in a fist fight. He can’t imagine things going any better if Raleigh finds out about him and Yancy, hence the sneaking out. 

(Him and Yancy, Yancy and him, like they’re actually a _thing_. A couple. That’s not what this is. It’s… he doesn’t know, actually, what this is. Sleeping with the enemy’s brother? Is there word for that?)

“Who’s Regina?” he asks, partly to distract himself, partly out of genuine curiosity. 

Yancy groans, and manages to muster up enough energy to throw a pillow at Chuck. It doesn’t even come close to hitting him. “Get out of my sight,” he groans, and Chuck shoots him a grin before he dashes out of the apartment, late for his first class of the morning. 

The third time, Chuck gets caught, but not by whom he expected. He makes it all the way to the kitchen, his boots swinging in his hands so as not to make extra noise, only to be greeted by Mako, sitting serenely on the kitchen counter with a steaming mug of tea to her lips. She doesn’t look at all surprised to see him there; in fact, she seems pleased, like a suspicion has been confirmed, and Chuck realizes that’s probably true.

“I was _never_ here,” he whispers. Mako stares at him disdainfully, sipping primly at her tea. He leaves without another word, his heart hammering away at his chest. It shouldn’t matter if Raleigh finds out, he and Yancy are grown men. But Chuck knows Yancy rarely does anything against Raleigh’s approval, and vice versa, and suddenly his chest constricts because what if Yancy breaks things off because Chuck can’t measure up, and Chuck stops in the middle of the street, his breath short and his hands clenched into fists and white edging at the corner of his vision. 

By the time he gets back to his own apartment, he has three text messages from Yancy and two missed calls, both from Yancy and Mako. 

_You dropped your student ID in the kitchen. Rals found it._

_We need to talk. Come over._

_Kid?_

The fourth time feels like a dream. He hurts everywhere, and he can taste blood on his dry lips. An ice pack is pressed into his hands, and he covers his burning face with it, sighing in relief.

“You make a habit of jumping into fights you can’t win?” 

Chuck freezes. He cracks open the eye that isn’t swollen to see Raleigh crouching in front of him. There’s a bruise on Raleigh’s cheek, his knuckles are split, and he’s staring at Chuck like he’s honestly waiting for an answer. 

It had started as a fair fight. Some asshole in a dive bar running his mouth, he doesn’t remember about what. It had just been an excuse to sucker punch a stranger, and the next thing Chuck knew, the entire bar erupted into chaos. Turns out the asshole had friends, and the last thing Chuck remembers is something very very heavy hitting the back of his head. 

“I was doing just fine on my own,” he snarls, but the effect is lessened by the ice pack pressed to his face. He thinks he remembers an indistinct blonde shape pulling someone off him, before he blacked out, but he’d thought it was-

“Where’s Yancy?” he blurts before he can stop himself. Raleigh jerks his head towards the kitchen, and now Chuck can hear someone bustling about, running the sink. He tries to sit up and poke his head over the couch, but a wave of vertigo stops him short and keeps him still. He hears Raleigh huff amusedly, and if he wasn’t in so much pain he’d punch the fucker.

“Yancy’s not going anywhere,” he says, and as if summoned Yancy is suddenly standing by the couch, looking down at Chuck with a half clinical, half fond gaze. He reaches down and nudges the ice pack away from Chuck’s face, and nods grimly at what he sees. 

“Nose looks fine, but you’ll have raccoon eyes for a few days at least,” he says softly. He sets a bowl of warm water down on the table. “Got to worry about your hands next.”

“I’ve been knocked around worse-” Chuck says, trying to sit up again, but Raleigh pushes him back down with just the tip of his index finger. 

“Nuh-uh. We think you cracked a rib.”

Chuck huffed. “Is that all?”

Raleigh catches Yancy’s eye. Chuck can’t see Yancy’s face from the angle he’s in, but he really hopes it’s the same look of fond exasperation he saw earlier. 

Raleigh takes a rag out of the bowl of warm water and starts to clean the split knuckles of Chuck’s hands, and Chuck begins to reconsider the idea that this entire situation is a bizarre dream. When he’s finished, Yancy takes over with the disinfectant and bandages. It’s clear they’ve both had plenty of practice at the job. 

“How did you find me?” Chuck asks, not particularly caring about the answer. The hypnotic silence of the brother’s working is too much for him to handle right now. 

“Mako gave us a list of places you go when you’re upset,” Yancy explains. Chuck notices matching split knuckles on Yancy’s hands, and a barely noticeable cut on his upper lip. “She said the bar was the best shot because you like to pick fights.”

“I don’t pick fights, I finish ‘em.”

Raleigh exaggerated a shiver. “Well you really had ‘em shaking in their boots, Charlie-boy.”

The only reason Chuck doesn’t lunge for Raleigh is because Yancy already has a hand on one shoulder to keep him down. “Besides,” Yancy continues easily, “the owners are friends of ours. Told Tendo to call us if you came in.”

“Keeping tabs on me?” Chuck grins. “That’s stalking, mate.”

“I prefer to think of it as protective observance,” Yancy replies, weaving a bandage around Chuck’s fingers, but his eyes are bright with mirth, and Chuck can hear Raleigh make a gagging noise. 

Raleigh retreats to his room when Yancy tapes up Chuck’s ribs. Chuck keeps as still as he can while Yancy cuts the bandages, fingers gently poking and prodding at the bruises around his ribcage. Chuck’s had worse injuries, he really has, but he watches silently as Yancy patches him up with a focus and determination that he’s not sure he could ever replicate. 

When Yancy finishes, he reaches up and presses a chaste kiss to Chuck’s forehead, the only part of his face that isn’t bruised or cut. “No more bar fights without backup, okay?” he says, like that’s it, like everything is okay just because Yancy believes it is. Yancy must notice the incredulous expression on Chuck’s face, because he adds, “We argued. Then we talked. And okay, he still doesn’t like you much, and I get that the feeling is mutual, but I like you. And I’d like it if you stuck around.”

Dreaming. Got to be. Has to be. Chuck _can’t_ be hearing this right. Yancy’s staring at him patiently, and Chuck gulps heavily. He looks Yancy straight in the eye, sticks out his chin, and says defiantly, “Well _someone’s_ got to keep Raleigh in line.”

Yancy laughs, and Chuck hears a shout from down the hall. “I can _hear you_ , you Aussie prick!”

Chuck doesn’t get a chance to spit back a reply, because Yancy leans in, mindful of the injuries, to kiss him.

The fifth time Chuck wakes up in the Becket apartment, it’s nearly noon, and Yancy has stolen the covers again. Chuck blinks up dazedly at the sunlight filtering in through the window, turns over, yanks one of the blankets out of Yancy’s grip, and falls back asleep, content to stay.


End file.
